Media Link-ed: Can Local TV Bounce Back Without Reinventing Its Infrastructure? - Michael Kassan - MediaBizBlogger

Ed Martin39s full live coverage from the Television Critics Association tour is available exclusively to corporate subscribers of the Jack Myers Media Business Report For more information visit wwwmyersreportcomIn a recent column quotThe Big Bounceback Local TVquot the always interesting Business Week Media Centric columnist Jon Fine makes the case that the local TV ad market may come back in advance of the rest of the ad business He concludes quotMake no mistake TV station groups won39t be rolling in the roses once a recovery finally arrives The business will still face numerous challenges The sector may not be the play so much as picking its survivorsamp8212the stations and companies that will best endure I39m not sure anyone looking to invest in traditional media companies these days is wise but if you39re determined to make this bet local TV may be where to place your chipsquotInteresting but the unvarnished truth is that the cost of doing local broadcast is almost five times the cost of national agency planners and some clients are likely to avoid using local broadcast because it is too cumbersome I asked Media Link industry category specialistKathy Crawford a 40 year veteran of the local broadcast business and most recently President of Local Broadcast for MindShare New York for her thoughts Here is what she told mequotReinvention is a word that we have all bantered about given the state of our economy and the current dynamic of doing more with less It is certainly a word that has taken hold in discussions and forums throughout our industry and there have been 39committees39 formed with the intention of doing just that amp8211 reinventing our businessquotBut one must ask the question What have we actually reinvented We would bet that if you ask any sales operation any buying operation in the agency or television or radio for that matter business what has been reinvented they would look at you with a question mark clearly noted on their foreheadsquotMedia plans are still being 39handed to the buying groups39 in writing no less couldn39t we write a script that would allow for the plan to be downloaded into DDS MediaBank or whatever your computer program is and thus eliminate at least one job amp8211 or even better and what has been suggested at the 4As Reinvention committee amp8211 electronically transferring the order directly into to the television radio station39s traffic department first stopping at sales management as discussed with the salesperson Can we imagine the amount of rekeying that would be eliminated here And the amount of errors eliminated We all have agreed that preemptions in the case of local television must stop but what have we done about it The cost of discrepant invoices due to these preemptions is not only in staff but in the cost of invoices that aren39t being paid because we can39t adjudicate these preemptionsquotOr is there an even better way to do this We would bet there is but we can39t sit around waiting for someone else to do it for us We have to step up to the plate The idea that 39we aren39t in the software business39 has got to be replaced with 39let39s get the software guys over here39 and start building it We have industry agreement that something has to be done Some of the groups have actually had meetings gotten consensus and have laid a foundation for change But now it is up to the companies to institute the change and nothing much has taken place More talk no actionquotSo as we are wont to do we continue to cut staff to satisfy the finance gurus but we don39t do the real hard work In the meantime our staffs are stretched and it is same old same old This is a challenge And it is big change But if we wait too long we won39t have to worryamp8211 the business model won39t have to change because there won39t be a businessquotWhile I occasionally try to outguess the market I rarely second guess KathyMichael E Kassan is Chairman and CEO of Media Link LLC a leading Los Angeles and New York Citybased advisory and business development firm that provides critical counsel and direction on issues of marketing advertising media entertainment and digital technology Michael can be reached at michaelmedialinkllccomRead all Michael39s MediaBizBlogger commentaries at Michael Kassan MediaBizBlogger

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Media Link-ed: Can Local TV Bounce Back Without Reinventing Its Infrastructure? - Michael Kassan - MediaBizBlogger

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